Berghawk Play Report Part 2 (almost caught up to the present!)

Still playing catch-up here, this report should get us to the present session. We're playing in Berghof in the Greyhawk campaign setting.

This statue of Vecna was better defended than the previous one. The party fought their way past skeletons with rubies in their right eye-socket (a sign of Vecna), towards the big boss: an elk ghoul. Thanks to the cleric Stern Defurer's undead turning maneuver's this ended up being quite a one-sided beat down! The adventurers deftly disarmed the Vecna statue and found a map pointing to a temple of Vecna, along with an invite to a human sacrifice under the Luna new moon (about 2 weeks away). Around this time, the party also encountered a lone adventurer, the Elf Feuersicht. Feuersicht decided to throw his lot in with party (and IRL we gained another player!)

The adventurers begun an initial incursion into the temple of Vecna - hidden inside a grassy mound west of the Hool River. The runes on the temples front door ominously said "some door are better left unopened" - which door that was referring to became a question of central concern to the party, and they took ample precautions in shutting door behind them. The first room entered contained three larger than life, stone skulls with eye sockets made for inserting precious stones. 

The fighter Roland tested one theory of where to put what gemstone and got hit with a fire spell - taking him within an inch of his life! (In actuality, I sort of explained the puzzle poorly. The fire would have killed Roland but I ruled that he survived because I could have done a better job in describing the trap. It's actually quite hard to explain whether something is a statue's left or right eye!). After this, the adventurers began hearing an incessant rhythmic tapping from the north-western corner of the room. They mustered the courage for one more room. This room to the north of the previous one contained three stone warriors overseeing three pedestals with treasure. The tapping continued; this time on the eastern wall. Tap tap tap...

Upon closer inspection the adventurers noticed that the "statues" all had seams where their hands were holding their weapons. While they considered whether they should turn back, the door they'd just come through opened, revealing a sinewy walking corpse! The monster ran towards the nearest adventurer intent on strangling them. A vicious battle ensued, and the party managed to strike the undead fiend down... Only for it to reanimate shortly after. That was enough for the party and they got OUDDA THERE.

On their way to Chiswell, it became clear that Roland did not just have burns, but some sort of nasty skin disorder. Arriving in Chiswell, the party met Kiril the head of the guard. They also visited the Smithy where they commissioned special shields and Stern held a multi-hour sermon in the town square of Chiswell (which does not have its own temple). This sermon was attended by many town folk, as well as a shadowy figure in purple robes who slipped away before the party could ask any more questions. 

In Chiswell the party also got to know Sage Urphantus who helped them identify a strange substance they'd found in Vecna's temple as regular lamp oil. Urphantus also offered the party 500gp for information on a historical site to the east that he had read about in his research - a place rumored to have more information about Berghof's original inhabitants. Urphantus was also able to tell Roland, that he had been struck with mummy rot, and would need to have it healed by a cleric. The party decided to make their way back to Kusnir in the hope that Mountain Dew could help with that. 

On their way there, the party had its first encounter with the Marodin of Lake Spendlowe - peaceful plant-based humanoids who dwell in the depths of the lake. Three Marodin made themselves known to the party: two regular folk, and their leader who carried a decorated staff. Their leader could speak common, and introduced himself by his Marodin name which is hard for other humanoids to pronounce. The party settled for "Khool". Khool told the party he had seen them destroy the statue of Vecna which pleased the Marodin. He asked them for their party's name, and upon hearing they didn't have one yet, he named them The Stone Smashers. Khool offered the party healing, and gave them a shell that they could submerge in the water of Lake Spendlowe to summon him within a day (this was my way of offering the party some more healing options, as well as introducing another bit of Berghof canon). Iirc The Stone Smashers then made it all the way back to Kusnir where Roland had his curse lifted by Mountain Dew - gratis as he brought her proof of another destroyed statue of Vecna. In addition, the elves of the party, Loradile and Magnus, with Feuersicht taking the lead, paid their respects in the Garden of Ehlonna and meditated by the statue of the Goddess of the woodlands. In return the priests of the Garden showed the elves how to find healing herbs local to Kusnir (in game terms this unlocked a new foraging skill for the elven adventurers - the ability to find healing herbs which double ones natural healing, but only in the region surrounding Kusnir). The party also had a Skulk citing to the south confirmed. Most likely in the Van Arthog Lakeside Villa to the south. After a few days of rest and healing, Roland thirsted for revenge for the death of his brother, but he obliged to investigate the more pressing issue of the human sacrifice at the temple of Vecna. 

On their way North from Kusnir, The Stone Smashers stumbled accross some Goblins who they ambushed and quickly dispatched of. Following their trails however brought the party to a cave entrance. Peering inside, the party saw a huge light purple mushroom the size of a tree. Careful inspection revealed that the mushroom had grown around a human fighter's corpse. The party destroyed the mushroom and carefuly delved deeper, only to be ambushed by Kenku. After taking out one of the Kenku, the party demanded they yield, and surprisingly the birdfolk obliged. They said it had been a misunderstanding - they had thought the party were the goblins coming back to attack them. The merciful Stone Smashers let the kenku off with a warning, but not before Roland gave a surviving Kenku a hard backhand for threatening his torch bearer David. The party decided to investigate more of the cave, as the Kenku had told them that the cave had once been the home of a Norker tribe who had power over mushrooms. And indeed, the party found more large purple mushrooms. These were in the shape of unmoving humanoid figures. They were frozen in place right where they had killed two more adventurers whom the party also looted. Delving further north, the party found the skeleton of an exceptionally large, two-headed Norker who they deduced must have been the tribe's chieftain. Both his skeleton, and the skeletons of the other Norkers in the cave were scorched as if hit by large fire balls. The corpse of a wizard had a wand on him... The party again deduced that this was most likely a wand of fireball. A powerful find if true! The Norker chieftain had a brass key on him, and the party managed to find a hidden door which revealed a small brass door at the end of a tight crawl space. But unbeknownst to them, the secret door opening had magically brought to life some Norker skeletons. While the party was focusing on getting Bilbur into the crawlspace, the skeletons attacked from behind. A skirmish broke out, and while the Stone Smashers won, the eld Loradil was tragically slain. Her last words were in praise of Ehlonna. While he was saddened by her death, Bilbur was nonetheless overcome with gold lust when he opened the small brass door. The party had found a large stash of coin, along with a strange, wooden, mushroom-shaped wand still in the hands of a dead Norker shaman. Could this be the secret to the Norker tribes control over mushrooms? Time will tell...

And that's it for now. We're back up to the present day.

From now on I'll be writing these up session by session. What an epic effort. My apologies for any typos or poorly worded sentences. I just had to get it all down somewhere.